What a perfect day for football and watching football. The oppressive humdity took a break and this morning was very nice. I was curious to see how much hitting and how crisp the players would be after the game and then their first day off in some time. Reid had them doing a little hitting and it was an OK practice. Still some things I did not like and others that were good.
During the "live period" at the end of practice they worked on short yardage stuff and getting the ball out of the shadows of their own endzone. A few players who struggled last week stepped up today and a few who were good last week regressed a little bit.
As Big Red would say...Ok, injuries;
a. Brian Westbrook - His absence was one of the first things I noticed this morning. At first I thought that maybe his bout with the flu had returned and maybe he was trying to milk it a little bit to get some time out of practice as all veteran players like to do. But one thought crossed my mind....let's flash back to Sunday night. After he caught that pass and was tackled out of bounds he got up and seemed to be flexing his foot. I didn't really think anything of it at the time because he continued to play. But when I went over to the PE.com tent and heard that he had a foot sprain I immediately thought of that play. And sure enough, that is when he injured it. But the prognosis is good and it doesn't seem serious at all.
b. Reggie Brown - He came out and participated in drills and looked like his same old self. He was making nice catches and continuing to impress. Later on in the practice I noticed Rick Burkholder come up to Andy and it appeared he was updating him. If you're even at camp you'll see him do this often after a player is injured. So I trained my binoculars into the medical tent and there was #86. So I was worried. I hoped it was just cramping and then maybe thought it was a reoccurance of the hamstring injury. Later on I found out that he strained his calf. And like Westbrook, it is not serious.
c. Calvin Armstrong - Did not practice due to the sprained knee
d. Scott Young - Did not practice due to the hamstring injury
e. Adrien Clarke - Did not practice due to the back spasms
f. Pat McCoy - Did not practice due to the concussion
g. Bruce Perry - Did not practice due to the concussion
h. Greg Richmond - Did not practice due to the back injury
i. Todd Pinkston - Did not practice due to the achilles injury
j. Jeremy Bloom - Did not practice due to the hamstring injury
1. So I'm sitting there and I see #46 come trotting out onto the field. I know that there was no #46 before so I was curious as to who it was. He didn't do much today obviously but it was funny to see him arrive on the field about 15 minutes after practice started and then have to meet and greet everyone for the first time in that setting. It turns out this is Marty Johnson a RB from Utah who was cut by DEN. I know nothing about him other than he's got a solid build and he played pretty good in 2004 for the Utes. goeagles99 and the other draftniks might be able to give us a better scouting report.
2. Another guy who I had no idea who he was because of no name being on the back of the jersey was #64 Stefan Rogers. It made sense to sign another OL because 4 guys didn't practice today and the depth is thin there. I read Rogers is from Lambuth College. A little "did you know" on Lambuth. Anyone remember Ron Dixon, the WR for the Giants? You remember him. He was the guy who almost scored on that play against the Eagles in 2001 where Damon Moore and Bobby Taylor save about a million of us from simultaneously having a heart attack. Well the play he almost scored on was named "The Lambuth Special" by Jim Fassel. A big who cares, I know. But interesting..at least to me.
3. Hank Baskett continues to be the star of camp. Well, he is sharing the spotlight with the 1st team defense, but this guy is playing excellent. The most impressive thing about Baskett to me is how well he adjusts to the ball in the air. He plucks it out of the air with ease. And it doesn't matter where it's thrown, his body control is so nice that he can reach almost anything. He gave me a scare though. He went down hard on a slant pattern after making contact with the corner and was down for a minute. He got back up and walked it off though. He is still wearing a sleeve on his calf from last week so I guess he tweaked it a little bit. But he played on and made some great grabs. I knock on wood as I say this, but I keep waiting for him to show some sort of weakness and I just haven't found one yet.
4. Ok, the 1st team defense. You guys saw them on Sunday. That is exactly how they have been since day one of camp. Trotter is a ball of energy. That guy trash talks, encourages, yells, screams and even talks to himself. He is the sparkplug of that unit. This squad continues to shut down the offense. They ran a lot of that hybrid nickle stuff today as well as a few run blitzes in the short yardage drills and they won almost everytime. No big yards were gained at all. One one play Trotter blew up the A gap and he was in there so fast Garcia had no time to make the handoff. He had to run it himself. Think they are ****ed off about last year? I'd say so. They said they want to be the #1 defense and they sure have the right attitude to do so.
5. Today was the debut of Brodrick Bunkley. My first impression of his was "wow". He's built like an brick you-know-what. Not real tall but solid. I watched him closely when they were doing the DL sled drills and he was popping the sled like crazy. The DL were on their knees and they were practicing firing out and hitting the sled with just their upper body. Bunkley almost broke the damn thing he's so strong. On his first play (he is obviously running with the 3's) he annilhilated Nick Cole and Max Jean-Gilles and threw the RB for a loss. I am so glad they drafted him.
6. The other interesting note today was Jabar Gaffney. Remember how I mentioned that Andy Reid has become more vocal? Well he jumped in Jabar's butt with two feet today. Gaffney ran a sloppy route. And I do mean sloppy. It was supposed to be a in route with him dragging across the field. He rounded the cut off and just looked bad. Reid saw it and immediatley pulled Jabar aside and told him about it. I watched through my binocs as Andy motioned with his hands that the cut must be sharper. Andy then went over to Marty M. and told him about it. Jabar is best suited for the slot. That's been mentioned many times by people. But he needs to get his head right. Maybe his confidence is down a little, who knows. After that sloppy route he was demoted a little bit. McCants and Lewis started getting more reps with the 1's. After practice Jabar and WR coach David Culley had a long discussion. They talked for about 15 minutes and most of it was Culley talking. The good thing was after they were done Jabar went over to the far field and began working with Timmy Chang catching extra balls. Know what route he was running and making sure he snapped off sharp cuts? Yeah, the same route he was sloppy on earlier. That impressed me. He spent about 30 minutes doing that.
7. Jeff Garcia still has those damn happy feet. It started to frustrate me watching him. I understand he was going up against the 1st team defense and I understand that they were working short yardage stuff, but he was not good today at all. Had to throw a ball out of bounds on short yardage because he couldn't find a receiver. Very inconsistent. Same with Koy. They have to get better.
8. Speaking of Koy, he was the one holding for Akers today. Dirk watched.
9. Matt Schobel has improved greatly since the first week. He seems much more sure of himself out there. He is a smooth receiver. You can tell from watching him that he isn't very choppy with his motions.
10. Andy Thorn was terrible. He had a bad game on Sunday and today he was dropping balls left and right. He was another guy who drew the ire of Big Red.
11. L.J Smith also had a nice morning practice. They ran the TE screen to him a few times and really seemed to focus on him in the short game.
12. Welcome back Sam Rayburn. He is one of the guys who I talked about showing back up. Maybe the game woke him up but he was playing well today. On one play he beat Andrews and met Reno Mahe in the backfield. I am not exaggerating when I say both of Reno's feet were parallel to te ground and you could hear the smack of the helmet in Reno's chest. That got Trotter going from the sidelines.
13. Matt McCoy is a guy who I like more and more as I see him play. I was cool with the pick last year but then seemed to wonder about him later on in the year. He took the momentum from Sunday's game into today and had a solid session. Know who he reminds me of intensity wise? Bill Romanowski (minus the spitting in the face , breaking fingers in pile ups and eating pills like candy).
14. Joselio Hanson has made his announcement that he'd like to be part of the 53 man roster. He had another solid practice. He's short but he's got some game. He is clearly ahead of Dexter Wynn and maybe could fight Donald Strickland for that dime job. But Donald returned today and had a few pass breakups and a near INT.
15. Ryan Moats returned to the field as well. I was a little surprised to see him out there but with Westbrook and Perry out I guess he decided he better see what he can do. Andy originally said another week on him, but he was out there with an AI-like compression sleeve on his left leg. He had a little bit of a limp and I think he was a little hesitant to really plant and drive off of that leg.
16. Buck was back out there too and he actually looked pretty good. No real noticeable limp even when jogging and he has had in the past. Caught the ball well and ran well.
17. Thomas Tapeh saw some time lined up as a halfback in the singleback set. I think they are planning on letting him see some time there on Thursday. He had a decent lead block on a run towards the end of practice. Josh Parry needs to be pushed and I really hope Tapeh can beat him out.
18. Jason Davis was back out there as well. He really didn't see too much action from what I saw in live session but the impressive thing about him is that he was not wearing any cast or anything like that on his hand only days after surgery on it. He knows he has to show himself in order to make the team or the PS.
19. Keep an eye on Matt Clark in the rest of the games. I am not saying he'll make the team but he is always around the ball. I believe he might have a shot to make the PS if he keeps playing well.
20. Donovan was Donovan. He continues to look real good. Nice touch on the deep ball in 7-7's. He did get picked by Shawn Barber though. Barber baited him and Donovan took it. He was flushed out of the pocket in the short yardage drills and he took off and got the first down and then some.
21. LaJuan Ramsey and Ed Jasper looked good. With Rayburn finally seeming to get back on track these guys are fighting for the last two spots. Isn't it nice to have depth at the DT position?
22. I watched a lot of Todd Herremans today as well. Both in individual drills and in the team sessions and you can see that he is really working on keeping his p@d level low. He seemed to be in a tighter crouch today with his butt lower to the ground.
23. The OL were doing an interesting drill early on. They had two tackling dummies standing straight up on a wrestling type mat and the OL were working on firing off the ball and getting inside to cut the defenders legs with the defenders obviously being the tackling dummies. This is the type of blocks that you see when the play is run to the right and the LT and LG must get their heads in front of the DL's body and take out their knees legally. The RT and RG's were working on blocking down on LBs. They'd fire out and have to get in front of the "LB" and get their head in front and make the block.
24. 2nd team OL was (from L-R) Justice-Jean-Gilles-Cole-Fraley-Darilek
25. There wasn't really enough bodies to make a 3rd team OL today.
26. Chris Gocong was back out there today but I didn't see much of him. Perhaps I missed his snaps, and I likely did because I was watching Tank Daniels, but they seem to be really working him in slowly. He's doing a lot of learning. He stays late after every practice with Barber, Gaither and Daniels and they work with the LB coach.
27. Tank Daniels, as I've mentioned before, is big. He towers over the LBs and his speed really stands out. He covered the RB well in the flat on one play and you can tell that the light is starting to come on when it comes to knowing where to be.
28. I know Reno looked good in the game. But he wasn't so good today when running inside. He was running with the 1's and he was stuff almost every time. Most of it was because the defense was playing out of their minds, but he still dances too much.
29. JR Reed showed no ill effects from playing in the game on Sunday. He was back out there practicing fielding punts and playing FS on defense. He popped someone real good, I don't recall who it was, and jumped right back up. Such a good story.
30. Sean Considine also delivered a big hit. Justin Jenkins caught a pass and Sean dropped the shoulder on him. He also is a guy who stays late after each practice working on coverage techniques. Him, Quintin Mikell and the safeties coach were out there for about an hour afterwards.
31. Darren Howard was getting some time at LS in the punt drills today. Not good. Bartrum is fine and in no danger of going anywhere, guys. They just need to see who the backup is. Howard's snaps are too slow to the punter. As for his real position(s) he was still as good as he's been since he got here.
32. Bill Sampy got some time with the 1's today after Reggie went out and Jabar was demoted for awhile. I've said it before, but this guy has some good hands. Does it mean anything? Who knows. But he could be a legit PS candidate becase of that and because he fields punts as well.
33. Mike Gasperson will make a great catch and then mess up three or four easy ones. Today he couldn't get off the press. Mike Lewis manhandled him.
34. Greg Lewis also got some time with the 1's when they went to 4 WR sets (this is when Sampy would come in too). Lewis also was running a little in the slot as well. Nothing bad today, made a few nice grabs.
35. Jason Avant is impressive. He had quite of bit of time with the 1's today working mostly from the slot and he can not only get open but he also has very good body control. He can make the tough catch and he's got good burst. He ran a real nice slant pattern and got his head around fast, made the grab and took off.
36. Darnerian McCants also got some work with the 1's. I know it sound like almost everyone did, and that's pretty much how it was. It seemed as if they rotated McCants, Lewis, Avant and Gaffney in there from time to time after Brown went out. Kind of like saying "OK, who wants to step up and take advantage here". He stayed lated after practice too and worked on catching fastballs from the Jugs machine while standing like 5 yards away from it. Didn't see him drop one at all. He also continues to be the first guy down the field on punt coverage.
As always, feel free to ask questions in case I have overlooked anything
Quote from: PhillyPhreak54 on August 08, 2006, 04:31:55 PM
8. Speaking of Koy, he was the one holding for Akers today. Dirk watched.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were reconsidering the #2/#3 QB roles. Both Koy and Garcia are awful, though.
Quote from: PhillyPhreak54 on August 08, 2006, 04:32:33 PM24. 2nd team OL was (from L-R) Justice-Jean-Gilles-Cole-Fraley-Darilek
Justice at LT, Jean-Gilles at LG, Cole at C, Fraley at RG, and Darilek at RT?
If the backup QB is going to blow, you might as well use the one that's not going to screw up on Akers.
Quote from: Tomahawk on August 08, 2006, 05:53:44 PM
Quote from: PhillyPhreak54 on August 08, 2006, 04:32:33 PM24. 2nd team OL was (from L-R) Justice-Jean-Gilles-Cole-Fraley-Darilek
Justice at LT, Jean-Gilles at LG, Cole at C, Fraley at RG, and Darilek at RT?
Si senor.
sweet report as always phreak :yay
runyan looked good sunday also. i am glad he's stepping up, depth at DT and D-line in general this year has to be the best in a looooong time. i want to see bunkley thursday night and i want to see him destroy the browns lineman. :yay
I want the first play of the regular season to be a called run for McNabb. If these are going to be our WRs everyone needs to know that he is a threat to run behind this offensive line.
I'm not reading all that.
;)
Great, great stuff. I love reading it.
Quote20. Donovan was Donovan. He continues to look real good. Nice touch on the deep ball in 7-7's. He did get picked by Shawn Barber though. Barber baited him and Donovan took it. He was flushed out of the pocket in the short yardage drills and he took off and got the first down and then some.
It's fantastic to hear that Dmac is looking so good. He only threw three passes Sunday night, but all three were lasers hitting dimes. He was burning the ball into tight spots. I can't wait to see what he does this season.
Quote7. Jeff Garcia still has those damn happy feet. It started to frustrate me watching him. I understand he was going up against the 1st team defense and I understand that they were working short yardage stuff, but he was not good today at all. Had to throw a ball out of bounds on short yardage because he couldn't find a receiver. Very inconsistent. Same with Koy. They have to get better.
Garcia is done. He has a noodle for an arm. If he has to play, the season might as well be over.
Quote5. Today was the debut of Brodrick Bunkley. My first impression of his was "wow". He's built like an brick you-know-what. Not real tall but solid. I watched him closely when they were doing the DL sled drills and he was popping the sled like crazy. The DL were on their knees and they were practicing firing out and hitting the sled with just their upper body. Bunkley almost broke the damn thing he's so strong. On his first play (he is obviously running with the 3's) he annilhilated Nick Cole and Max Jean-Gilles and threw the RB for a loss. I am so glad they drafted him.
Niiiiiiice. Can't wait to see him play.
If the backup QB is going to blow, you might as well use the one that's not going to screw up on Akers
yes
Bunkley has the one thing you can't teach. Just pure power. As long as he practices and gets his technique and plays down, he should be a star for a long time.
Bunkley has the one thing you can't teach. Just pure power
haha
And that Christmas, little Bunkley learned that pure power was truly the greatest gift of all.
Quotea. Brian Westbrook - His absence was one of the first things I noticed this morning. At first I thought that maybe his bout with the flu had returned and maybe he was trying to milk it a little bit to get some time out of practice as all veteran players like to do. But one thought crossed my mind....let's flash back to Sunday night. After he caught that pass and was tackled out of bounds he got up and seemed to be flexing his foot. I didn't really think anything of it at the time because he continued to play. But when I went over to the PE.com tent and heard that he had a foot sprain I immediately thought of that play. And sure enough, that is when he injured it. But the prognosis is good and it doesn't seem serious at all.
Bwest is the key to this offense. The line looked good, but it was the Raiders. If they can block like they did Sunday night he's gonna' have a monster year, if he
stays healthy........and yes hbionic, we pray, and pray some more.
The whole back up QB thing scares the crap out of me, I thought Garcia might be a solid backup, and I don't want to get to concerned from one preseason game but....
Doesn't really worry me that much. I'd assume Garcia would look a lot better behind the first team offensive line and with first team weapons.
I don't know if there were or are better choices out there, unless you want Kerry Collins.
Quote from: Bunkley78 on August 08, 2006, 08:43:06 PM
I don't know if there were or are better choices out there, unless you want Kerry Collins.
Instant upgrade over Koy.
whats gonna happen thursday at the rb spot assuming moats...westbrook...perry and buck all dont play
Mahe, Tapeh, Eddie Eppelman at RB.
Quote from: ice grillin you on August 08, 2006, 08:47:16 PM
whats gonna happen thursday at the rb spot assuming moats...westbrook...perry and buck all dont play
Buck, Mahe, Tapeh, and Marty Johnson at tailback!
this offense scares the shtein out of me
Quote from: SunMoTzu on August 08, 2006, 09:12:20 PM
this offense scares the shtein out of me
Is Darnell Autry available?
I'd rather have Gene Autry.
Chris Warren?
Chris Tucker?
With or without Charlie Sheen?
With. We can't hold out hope for Jackie Chan or Bruce Willis.
One thing I forgot about...Donovan slammed the ball down in the short yardage drill when no one got open. GCobb mentioned it and I remember him doing that. They were in a 2 TE, 1 RB, 1 FB, 1 WR set.
Quote from: PhillyPhreak54 on August 09, 2006, 01:00:14 AM
One thing I forgot about...Donovan slammed the ball down in the short yardage drill when no one got open. GCobb mentioned it and I remember him doing that. They were in a 2 TE, 1 RB, 1 FB, 1 WR set.
so mcnabb got mad? but was he mentally fragile?
I think he saw TO's face in the turf. That bastich is still haunting McNabb.
DAMN the ghost of TO!!
He's not dead yet... OH GOD! TO's ghost can travel through time!